All Hallows’ Eve and the Myth of Devolugu

A while back I wrote a short story called All Hallows’ Eve and the Myth of Devolugu. When I was writing this I did, if being honest, rush it slightly so I could put it online in time for Halloween (as it’s a supernatural thriller based at the time of Halloween). However, I was not particularly happy with the ending, but to meet my own set timeline I still put it online.

This is not something I would do now and generally speaking rushing work out is never a good idea. So I have revisited this story and I have made several changes to the original version.

The main of which is changing the ending, which I believe now is far more original and I am satisfied with.

The second change worth noting is that when I read over the story again having not looked at it for a couple of years I couldn’t believe one of the aspects that I had written. This being that this young journalist student character, Eleanor, would follow a respected historian/writer (Arthur) who says that he believes in an ancient Celtic myth about a powerful supernatural creature. – Any sane person who met an individual who believed in an ancient myth would at least be suspicious as to that persons sanity or would want some proof or solid reasoning for why he or she believed in such a myth.

But here Eleanor just appears to take Arthur at face value. Although in reality sometimes people can do this; this is not something the character Eleanor would do. So I have changed this in the updated version and it now comes across as far more plausible.

Adding to this change I would also say this is one of the more difficult aspects of writing, and reading back over something that I have written myself and thinking a part of it is nonsense or not fitting with my thinking and approach to writing fiction is a little hard to swallow, but perhaps not that rare. Although saying that I am not perfect, the story was a bit rushed and writing fiction is no easy task and perhaps in some cases in real life this is how a person such as Eleanor would respond.

Still moving forward I will rarely make large changes to any story I have written once it has been put online and especially if it has gone to print. – Also an easy way to avoid such changes is to have to well reviewed by beta-readers before it goes online 😉

If you ever read this story I hope you do enjoy it and please do share your thoughts of it on this post or with me through another online channel such as Facebook, Twitter etc…

Related

Coffee and Craft Blog

This blog is about Chris's work, but also the work of others whether it's written, filmed or photographed. The title originates from the fact that getting good at something, what ever that may be usually takes time and practice to hone the craft.